A standard central lock system for a motor vehicle with a plurality of doors has a respective lock in each door provided with a respective actuator, typically a small electric motor, by means of which the lock can be displaced between a locked and unlocked position. In some vehicles a third antitheft position is provided that not only maintains the respective door locked, but also prevents it from being opened from inside the vehicle or even from outside by a key so that only a specially bitted key fitted to the driver's door lock can open the vehicle.
Normally a central controller is connected via cables to the various door locks and even to sensors that report back to the controller on the open/closed position of the door. For the standard pivotal door the cabling passes from the door post into the door adjacent the hinge so that this cabling is relatively safe and is only subjected to modest flexing as the door swings open and closed.
A sliding door of the type provided on many vans presents a particular problem in that the entire door moves rather radically, often through a substantial distance, relative to the door posts it mates with. The lock is, nonetheless, still mounted in this door so the cabling must be routed in such a manner that it can follow the door movement without kinking or getting damaged. Clearly this constitutes a substantial design problem and creates something that is likely to fail, creating warranty and callback problems for the vehicle manufacturer.